The Houghton Mifflin contest 'Win a Trip to Middle-earth' winner should be announced this week, according to the spokesperson for the contest. TheOneRing.netÖ will be probing a few people for the answer.

"Many years ago, the Dark Lord created a ring of incredible power, a ring to rule all other rings of power. And then the ring was lost...Frodo and Sam-lowly hobbits-must destroy the ring by casting it into the fire from whence it came. They must journey to the Dark Kingdom where evil Sauron, in the great tower, is supreme. Their guide is Gollum, deceitful and lust-filled slave to the corruption of the ring. The fantastic and horrible awaits them, from evil orcs to a gigantic spider named Shelob. Meanwhile, Frodo's companions: Legolas, Gimli; Aragorn-and Gandalf from the council of Wizards-are caught in the strategy of the traitor Saruman, whose fortress must be overcome. Don't miss the mastery of Tolkien's The Two Towers, Book 2 of the greatest epic fantasy ever written, brought to life on the Lifeline stage Order now...our production of The Fellowship of the Ring sold out"

The play is scheduled to run between January 22 and May 7, Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm, Sundays at 3:30pm. More information can be obtained at www.lifelinetheatre.com

I spoke to the store proprietors, who had seen the production of FoTR two years previously. They said it was a good adaptation, though it only provided a sampling of the book rather than the entire story.

The IMDB updates constantly, of course, and there's some new information concerning the crew of LotR. Ever since the crew list was released there's been some speculation as to who will edit the film, which is a fairly important job. Some suggested that PJ might be editing it himself. According to the IMDB, the editors for Fellowship of the Ring are John Gilbert IX (Crush, Jack Be Nimble, The Frighteners, more)and LotR Post-Production Supervisor Jamie Selkirk

Former Lord of The Rings movie extra Eddie McCarthy does not feel bitter about being blacklisted by Wellington acting agencies after spilling "secrets" about the making of the film. He just finds it laughable.

The rest of the article goes on to describe Eddie (Hobbitknocker) McCarthy's first article published in 'Contact', and how 3Foot6 reacted. They issued him a threatening letter.

When Contact tried to, er, contact 3Foot6 or Wingnut films, they discovered the phone number has changed. McCarthy, meanwhile is apathetic:

"It's hysterical because it's so ludicrous. How can they threaten a 68-year-old amateur actor [with no more work] when I just do this sort of thing for the love of it. I don't gtive a damn about it. I've been there and done my thing. I've sung in music shows in the 60s before Avalon Studios were built."

When McCarthy tried to call his agency 'Trio Talent Management' for more work they told him 'You should basically consider yourself blacklisted'.

At the suggestion of our friends at TheForce.net, TheOneRing.net¬ is proud to announce our affiliation with IGN.com, the internet's premiere entertainment website.

What does this mean for TheOneRing.net¬? You will notice just a few physical changes to the site. We will now carry the IGN logo with its link to their larger world of entertainment-related sites. There will be a wider variety of ad banners, on our main site that will open your eyes to many new science-fiction and fantasy related sites. What about the small business ads? Well, we will still be carrying very low cost or free ads for Tolkien-related small businesses in our sister sites like Gaming Havens, Green Books, Fan.TheOneRing.net¬, etc. Last but not least, don't worry! We won't be changing our web URL or anything drastic like that. TheOneRing.net¬ will still be hosting on our server and will still be run by the same group of 20+ volunteers.

With our partnership with IGN, TheOneRing.net¬ realizes it is likely that expenses will be more than covered. We don't intend that personal profit will now become our main objective, and we have investigated a number of charitable causes which we will support. TheOneRing.net¬ is proud to announce that we are in talks to become co-sponsors of an online environmental education program for schools which is run by the Worldwide Fund for Nature. We also will be supporting an educational program in NZ called Books in Homes, a scheme which is doing a great deal to ensure that coming generations will continue to read and feel as comfortable with books as we are; it is our hope that many children will discover the magic of some of the books we have loved and learned from.

We are VERY excited for this opportunity to support these various charities. More information on these charities and more will become available as plans are finalized. We would like to thank IGN helping us to be able to help others.

This week I have been going to a summer program at the Australian FIlm Television and Radio School, during the week lecturers in many different fields have been talking to us.

One of the men was a man from an Australian digital fx company called 'Animal Logic' (www.animallogic.com), he was showing us some of his work (matrix etc) and during his lecture he told us how they use digital effects in films to create larger armies than there actually are.

Animal Logic spoke about the 'Massive' technology, however they are not working on LOTR. However he showed us how to create large amounts of people for battle scenes. He has done ads such as the KFC ad where all the KFC employees are watching the huge screen with Star Wars images. He has also done the Maytag ads where the parents vs the kids on a field over what is for dinner.

How he did it was take about 50 or so extras and film them doing the actions at certain places on the field. They filmed the extras using all the different camera angles the ad would require and they created a system by which the camera could pan without effecting the end effect as normally the camera had to be steady to do this sort of effect. What they then did was use the existing images of people to fill in the rest of the gaps on the field. Once all together with camera pans etc it really looks like there are thousands of people.

As I said he is not working on LOTR but this is a good example of how WETA will probably create large hordes of Orcs.

For more on this and other computer related magic check out our SFX section.

One of the most popular stories of Middle-earth is the tale of Beren and Luthien. It's a classic poor-boy falls for rich girl drama combined with high adventure, intrigue, depravity, and magic. There seems to be something for everyone. [More]

"War of the Ring" is a Total Conversion of the game "WarCraft II: Tides of Darkness", and the expansion pack "Beyond the Dark Portal". It will feature new units, graphics, and missons based on the triology "Lord of the Rings" by the late Professor John Ronald Reuel Tolkien. The conversion is not ready yet, but a multiplayable beta will hopefully be released sometime this year. [More]

A friend of mine saw Liv Tyler (Arwen) recently in a museum in downtown Dallas. She is filming a Robert Altman movie here (with Richard Gere who has also been spotted at said museum). I would assume that if she is filming a whole other movie here, then it may be awhile before she is in NZ again.

Gandalf the Grey has just sent me a new topic he and his hobbit brother Gamgee concocted this weekend. Being Lord of the Ring loremasters, hopefully they'll both be able to join us and answer your burning Middle Earth questions! [More]

A quick reminder about tonights live chat with Hugo award winning author Kim Stanley Robinson. Mr. Robinson's work includes the 'Mars Trilogy', he'll be around to answer your questions concerning the writing process, creating realistic characters, and getting your work published! Ask him how Tolkien inspired his work and stories.

Well, Harry over at Ain't It Cool News received a report from a NZ spy saying that we are banned from the production or something to that effect.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

In effect, as reported before, our dear Tehanu was issued a trespassing notice for the Helms Deep set. A set she has never even visited before. And that's about it, this will in no way effect the way we handle our news and spy reports.

Eddie McCarthy, an extra for the New Line Cinema production of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, found today a down-side of breaking a confidentiality agreement.

During the weekend his talent agency, Trio Talent Management, informed Mr. McCarthy that the local community newspaper article he wrote "Confessions of a Hobbit Knocker", has effectivly killed his career in television and film - as he could not be trusted to keep quiet on projects in production. Camperdown studios of Miramar are also a banned place, and when Mr. McCarthy tried to gain entry to explain himself, security guards would not let him past the main gate.

As Mr. McCarthy explained, he provided the article to share with everyone his joy in being able to take part in such a highly anticipated series of films. He now wonders if his contribution will end up on the cutting room floor.

Written or verbal confidentiality agreements are a part of most production work, and the afternoon Wellington newspaper, The Evening Post, quoted a member of the G.C.S.B. (New Zealand's external spy service) who has an extras role in the films, that the wording of the agreements are more strict on the level of information that actors involved are allowed to share than the agreement he signed when he started work for the government department.

January is the birth month of legendary fantasy author J.R.R. Tolkien and we're celebrating with 70 questions with a familiar "ring" to them. Come join us for a night of trivia straight out of Middle Earth.

Special Prize: Goblins, dwarves, elves and other forest creatures are vividly brought to life on CD in this audio presentation of THE HOBBIT brought to you by AudioUniverse!

Mindprobe is SCIFI.COM's live multiplayer trivia game show. Each week, players answer questions, chat and compete for a fabulous Sci Fi t-shirt or other special prizes. And every weeknight at 7:30pm Eastern time, players can test their knowledge of general sci-fi trivia, with prizes awarded to the player with the highest monthly cumulative score. For more information on Mindprobe and how to play, visit:

I really don't want to rattle this cage again, but this week's 'Woman's Day' (Jan 24th) reports that 'Sean Connery can't be counted out of the 'Rings' yet. It may be his most villainous role ever.'I am only passing on what I've seen in print. I have NO opinion on the likelihood of this being true, so don't email me about it.

The NZ Dominion has reported that LOTR Producer Tim Sanders has quit the production. In a statement Sanders claimed that it was his decision to leave. In another statement Barry Osborne, another producer on the project commented.

"Tim's been involved with this project since the very early days and done a wonderful job. He's a great guy, he's done a great job. But I've been here for quite a long time. This project has been a complicated one and he's done well to get this thing up and off the ground."

It was stressed that monetary concerns was not the reason Sanders left.